Building a sustainable world
Another Wednesday, more time for Genius Hour. My project was supposed to go until Spring Break but it's continuing a little longer. Mr. Funk added Minecraft to the mix and students built their sustainability projects there. While we would love for the projects to actually become a reality, the reality is this might be as real as it gets.
Students created their aquaponics, living wall, environmental field trips, and cafeteria waste projects in the school setting and today presented what they created.
We were a little worried that Minecraft may have been for younger students and eighth graders perhaps aged out but turns out, they could not close their laptop screens to stop working on their world.
This project really got the kids to work together to create a more sustainable school and I'm super proud of their efforts. They explored so many issues surrounding their project and tried to come up with solutions.
In the end (even though this really isn't the end), sustainability doesn't only describe the environmentally sound projects they are working on but also encompasses their experience discovering, creating, designing, diving into issues, collaborating, critically thinking and becoming a better learner and student with Genius Hour.
Go Dolphins!
Denalee, the fact that the students were so engrossed in their project on Minecraft says a lot. They were creating their sustainability projects and solutions in their Minecraft community. While their sustainability projects may not actually be completed at this time, there may be opportunities in the future. Maybe you can have a discussion with them about how they might independently continue their projects on their own and share their progress with the rest of the class.
ReplyDeleteAdditionally, will they have an opportunity to share their Minecraft projects with an authentic audience? That would be powerful as well.
I love your last paragraph! Your students have learned so much from this Genius Hour project and have gained skills that will carry them through the rest of their lives. Are students having an opportunity to reflect and then to share their learnings, not just the academic skills but the learning dispositions as well? Their responses can inform future lessons.
Denalee, way back many years ago I was invited to Punahou School to visit a colleague, Doug Kiang. He was a computer science and intentional design teacher, and an Apple Distinguished Fellow. I was just beginning my journey into "ed-tech" and he wanted to show me an exemplar project. Doug's "class project" used Minecraft. Students were asked to build "the school of their dreams" on separate islands in Minecraft. I recall the only mandate was that before each student finished building their school, they had to schedule a visit to all other schools at some point during their construction. I recall standing behind Doug in his office at Cooke Library completely floored at the complexities, the layers, the depth of this project, esp. the research students did to explore schools around the world (looking for inspiration). Your SIP and this post, and your comment about kids not wanting to close their laptops made my day. This is what it is all about. This is what student-driven learning is. This is what deeper learning is. This is what school could be. (And I echo everything Jan said!)
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